May 9, 2012 7:05pm EDTMay 9, 2012 11:18am EDTRegan Smith returns to Darlington as the defending champion after pulling off a stunning upset last year. Now Smith hopes the return can spark a turnaround for his struggling team.

Regan Smith returns to Darlington Raceway this weekend as the defending champion of a Sprint Cup race, something he has never done before and something he hopes brings momentum to turn around a disappointing start to the 2012 season.

Smith won his first Sprint Cup race a year ago by gambling on pit strategy. He inherited the lead by staying out on the track while the rest of the leaders pitted during a late caution period, and then held off Carl Edwards for his first victory in 105 career starts.

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Now Smith needs to recapture some of that magic for his Furniture Row Racing team.

“It comes at a needed time for us,” Smith said of his return to Darlington. “We’ve been struggling just a little bit and we want to get our stuff going back in the right direction again and getting back towards the front.

“I know we have a good setup for there so I’m looking forward to it a lot.”

The 28-year-old Smith had hoped the upset win last year would serve as a spark for the still-developing team, which was running just its second full season. But while it certainly brought the team a lot of attention, it never developed any consistency and finished 26th overall in the final Sprint Cup standings.

They started 2012 with four top-20 finishes in the first six races, but the last month has brought finishes of 23rd, 24th, 27th and 40th—the latest coming when Smith’s engine blew 15 laps into the race at Talladega—and he has dropped to 27th in the standings.

“It’s one of them things where we have to get out of that hole,” Smith said. “We just haven’t found much that has been working for us here.

“We’re going to do a lot of testing and we’ve got some good tracks for us coming up, so that should be a chance to get it turned around a little bit. If I sat here and said I am happy with the season, I’d be lying to you.”

With his recent struggles, combined with rumors that the team has talked to Kurt Busch about next season, all of a sudden there are questions about Smith’s status with the team.

Busch, the 2004 Cup champion who has 24 career victories, left Penske Racing last year after a series of emotional outbursts. He is driving this season for Phoenix Racing, but is looking for new opportunities for next season.

Smith said he has known for a long time that the team wants to hire Busch—for a second Cup team.

“They’ve been up front with me about everything going on,” Smith said. “And that’s all I can say about it. None of it that has been coming out has been a surprise to me. It’s all been stuff about us progressing the team, making the team better.”

Smith, who has driven for Furniture Row for nearly three years and moved to Colorado last year to be near the team, plans on being part of that plan. He is a free agent after this season and says they have talked about a contract extension.

Smith’s name was floated as a possible candidate for the openings at Penske Racing and other teams during the offseason.

To go from being considered for one of the top rides to being rumored to be on the hot seat is not something Smith is all that worried about.

“We’ve got bigger issues as a team to figure out before we start worrying about that stuff,” Smith said. “The performance has dropped off greatly quick. Form my standpoint, that’s all I’m worried about right now.

“Is there other stuff out there? Absolutely there is other stuff out there. … I just go with the (flow), but certainly looking forward to the future. We’ve got to run better.”

Smith said he has a great deal invested in the race team personally and wants to see the organization get to the next level.

The next stop is Darlington, where he returns as the defending champion.

He won’t go as far as to say he has tamed one of NASCAR’s toughest tracks—“As soon as you think you tamed it, you’re going to wreck on Lap 5,” he said—but he goes there with the memory of earning the first race trophy in the history of Furniture Row Racing.

“(Setups) have changed a lot since then, but there’s also stuff that you can do that is still relevant to that,” Smith said. “As much as anything, it’s just confidence that you know what you want your car to feel like when it comes race time.

“Because you know that, it seems like it makes it a little bit easier to get to that point.”